fluffy2097:Linkster: DrPainMD: Could be worse. She could be in prison in the US for manufacturing medical devices.

Not a convicted Felon? You just haven't been charged and convicted yet. Welcome to the USA.

The fun part about getting arrested in America is anything you say can be used against you, but not in your own defense.

Exactly why any defense attorney will tell you (and even some cops will admit) that if ever arrested you should not say a single farking thing. When they say "anything you say CAN and WILL be used against you in a court of law" they're not joking.

Tyranicle:rev. dave: Tyranicle: shamalamadingdong: Looks like the other side of the world has a Texas, too.

I'm a Texan and as far as I know we've never lived under communism or imprisoned citizens in gulags for disagreeing against the policies of the 'state'.

I don't know anything about Texas. But Russia is more capitalist than we are in the US. The rich run the show there.

Revolt, then. Eutopia is beyond that brown hill you stare at, in despair.

Actually she stated facts that were inconvenient to the prosecutor and the rich moralistic conservatives in power and he(?) chose to trump up charges and railroad her, which happens here in Texas all the time.

Mock26:badhatharry: Mock26: kombat_unit: Don't worry. The USA is way worse.

Care to quote some examples where, in an American court, an expert witness was arrested because the prosecutor did not like the answers that were provided?

That's a nice poll you got there Link

Interesting story, but it is still not a case where an expert witness was arrested for giving testimony that the prosecution did not like.

I doubt it. "Expert" witnesses are still fairly protected. Character witnesses and people who know the defendant and live in the same gutter on the other hand, plenty of them get tossed in the slammer for delivering witness testimony the prosecution didn't like.

Care to quote some examples where, in an American court, an expert witness was arrested because the prosecutor did not like the answers that were provided?

Look at the big picture. The United States has the highest percentage of its population incarcerated of any country in the world, is one of few developed countries using the death penalty for crimes less than war crimes or treason (Russia, for example, no longer uses it), is one of few countries that routinely sentences people to life without parole, and until very recently was the only country in the world that would sentence juvenile offenders to life without parole. It's a system that, while less affected by petty personal corruption, is exceptionally punitive and systematically seeks gross, arbitrary, and disproportionate outcomes with the primary goal being to increase the system's power and intimidate all future defendants. It wants defense attorneys to believe that anyone charged with a crime had better plead guilty because virtually anything can be criminal if prosecutors decide it is, you will not get acquitted of every felony charge they can apply to you, and resistance is futile. A little more Russian-style petty corruption certainly wouldn't improve the American system but might make it seem more like it's made of human beings than machines.

Care to quote some examples where, in an American court, an expert witness was arrested because the prosecutor did not like the answers that were provided?

Look at the big picture. The United States has the highest percentage of its population incarcerated of any country in the world, is one of few developed countries using the death penalty for crimes less than war crimes or treason (Russia, for example, no longer uses it), is one of few countries that routinely sentences people to life without parole, and until very recently was the only country in the world that would sentence juvenile offenders to life without parole. It's a system that, while less affected by petty personal corruption, is exceptionally punitive and systematically seeks gross, arbitrary, and disproportionate outcomes with the primary goal being to increase the system's power and intimidate all future defendants. It wants defense attorneys to believe that anyone charged with a crime had better plead guilty because virtually anything can be criminal if prosecutors decide it is, you will not get acquitted of every felony charge they can apply to you, and resistance is futile. A little more Russian-style petty corruption certainly wouldn't improve the American system but might make it seem more like it's made of human beings than machines.

"We hardly have trials anymore."

You've completely missed the bigger than big picture. It's about money. Most prison systems have been contracted out to be run by FOR-PROFIT private companies. It's about making money for them by keeping more and more people locked up. Everyone involved in the process of arresting, detaining, defending, convicting, and housing prisoners gets a cut of the money.

(It's the same reason the war on drugs is going strong after 40 years of epic failure)

Regular cops don't get a cut of the money, they just get the thrill of power.

pla:I would post a mockery of what the "former" Soviet Union calls justice...

But since Italy beat them to it last year by prosecuting geologists for causing earthquakes with sheep's bladders, well, not really much to say here.

/ And don't even get me started on creationists and global warming deniers... Hey, perhaps we can finally find the "missing link" in the newly-navigable Northwest Passage! // Not really necessary, for those who don't get the joke.

GeneralJim:SevenizGud: James Hansen, the #1 global warming, sky is falling, chicken little dude, he wants people who disagree with him charged with crimes against humanity.

...even though the scientist own data show that world has not warmed ANY in the last 15+ years.Yep, and Farkers have called for beatings, prison, and death for anyone who refuses to drink the warmer alarmist Kool-Aid...It COULD happen here, if the government wants something badly enough.

"warmer alarmist Kool-Aid" AKA the truth. Heaven forbid people stop denying what science overwhelmingly supports and switch to solar/wind. Because, you know, if by some sort of magic, CO2 doesn't absorb heat in the atmosphere like it does in the lab, we would be switching to clean, sustainable energy not monopolized by authoritarian dictatorships... for NOTHING!

CygnusDarius:she shares a cell with Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a member of the prominent activist punk band Pussy Riot..

Make a band: Chemical Pussy Riot.

At least she's not stuck bunking with "Tatiana, the midnight face-stabber of Murmansk", I suppose. This is outrageous, anyway, and a clear attempt to threaten witnesses into giving testimony the prosecutors approve of.

TheMysteriousStranger:Robert Bork has explicitly argued that the First Amendment does not apply to scientific literature (or for that matter for literature). Some guy called Mitt has him as an adviser.

Shush! Any opinion that points out the problems with the United States is trolling and will get you ignored by "serious" (lol) farkers.

"warmer alarmist Kool-Aid" AKA the truth. Heaven forbid people stop denying what science overwhelmingly supports and switch to solar/wind. Because, you know, if by some sort of magic, CO2 doesn't absorb heat in the atmosphere like it does in the lab, we would be switching to clean, sustainable energy not monopolized by authoritarian dictatorships... for NOTHING!

Egad, THIS old canard.

Clearly, you have the solution. Because, right now, the biggest problem facing the world is what to do with all the spare money floating around. Nothing like spending several times as much on energy as we do now to fix that.

And, by the way, Einstein, Both solar and wind cannot be counted on for coverage. A few still and cloudy days, and you have a blackout -- the real power plants need to stay as "backup" power plants.

And, here is a list of some of the gross errors in scientific method and practice which have become part of the IPCC credo. List HERE. (new window)

IPCC science includes the idea that carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere more than 100 years, contradicting ALL of the available peer-reviewed research. Chart HERE. (new window)

Research shows that "carbon dioxide starvation" most likely led to a die-off of C3 plant species, the rise of C4 plant species, and a die-off of animals unable to digest grasses. Paper HERE. HERE. (new window)

Peer-Reviewed literature showing that climate sensitivity is actually MUCH less than the IPCC suggests, 2.0 to 4.5 K, at 66% certainty. Data from OBSERVATIONS show the least sensitivity, "data" from models show the most.

Note that when the suggested correction to the math error is included in the models, they at least sort of accurately predict the present from historical data. Without the corrections, they do not. Awkward.

Tyranicle:shamalamadingdong: Looks like the other side of the world has a Texas, too.

I'm a Texan and as far as I know we've never lived under communism or imprisoned citizens in gulags for disagreeing against the policies of the 'state'.

No, you've consistently had one of the worst records for political corruption in the US, with plenty of politically-oriented murders; you may have seen a film of one of the more famous of these. Look up the San Saba Co. vigilante murders, where large numbers of Texans were robbed of their land and/or murdered. The plot of Walking Tall has nothing on Texas when it comes to political criminality, a record including some of the heaviest use of chain-gang legalized post-1865 slavery, making use of forced labor largely based on spurious vagrancy charges. Thanks to LBJ, Texas gave us the Vietnam War, as well as John Tower, Dick Armey, Jack Abramoff, that roach chaser with the pointy ears I can't name now, and of course the Bushes.

GeneralJim:CourtroomWolf: "warmer alarmist Kool-Aid" AKA the truth. Heaven forbid people stop denying what science overwhelmingly supports and switch to solar/wind. Because, you know, if by some sort of magic, CO2 doesn't absorb heat in the atmosphere like it does in the lab, we would be switching to clean, sustainable energy not monopolized by authoritarian dictatorships... for NOTHING!Egad, THIS old canard.

Clearly, you have the solution. Because, right now, the biggest problem facing the world is what to do with all the spare money floating around. Nothing like spending several times as much on energy as we do now to fix that.

And, by the way, Einstein, Both solar and wind cannot be counted on for coverage. A few still and cloudy days, and you have a blackout -- the real power plants need to stay as "backup" power plants.

And, here is a list of some of the gross errors in scientific method and practice which have become part of the IPCC credo. List HERE. (new window)

IPCC science includes the idea that carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere more than 100 years, contradicting ALL of the available peer-reviewed research. Chart HERE. (new window)

Research shows that "carbon dioxide starvation ...

Hey Einstein, what is wrong about doing everything we can, within reason, to limit our impact upon the Earth? Hmmm? Forget whether or not we are causing global warming or contributing to it or whatever else. Why not operate under the assumption that we are having some sort of a negative impact on the environment and then seeking to reduce that impact? Is that really such a horrible thing?

Care to quote some examples where, in an American court, an expert witness was arrested because the prosecutor did not like the answers that were provided?

Look at the big picture. The United States has the highest percentage of its population incarcerated of any country in the world, is one of few developed countries using the death penalty for crimes less than war crimes or treason (Russia, for example, no longer uses it), is one of few countries that routinely sentences people to life without parole, and until very recently was the only country in the world that would sentence juvenile offenders to life without parole. It's a system that, while less affected by petty personal corruption, is exceptionally punitive and systematically seeks gross, arbitrary, and disproportionate outcomes with the primary goal being to increase the system's power and intimidate all future defendants. It wants defense attorneys to believe that anyone charged with a crime had better plead guilty because virtually anything can be criminal if prosecutors decide it is, you will not get acquitted of every felony charge they can apply to you, and resistance is futile. A little more Russian-style petty corruption certainly wouldn't improve the American system but might make it seem more like it's made of human beings than machines.

"We hardly have trials anymore."

You've completely missed the bigger than big picture. It's about money. Most prison systems have been contracted out to be run by FOR-PROFIT private companies. It's about making money for them by keeping more and more people locked up. Everyone involved in the process of arresting, detaining, defending, convicting, and housing prisoners gets a cut of the money.

(It's the same reason the war on drugs is going strong after 40 years of epic failure)

No one, in my entire life, has ever tried to sell me any illegal drugs. Seems that the war on drugs is going great!

In all the years I've been on Fark, that's the longest comment I've ever seen. The Warmers aren't going to like it though.

Yeah, it's long and distinguished, like my... well, never mind... It's a list of links I've compiled of stories documenting various things: Reports of data manipulation in the global data sets; personal corruption of high officials of the Church of Global Warming; Documentation of the immense failure of models based upon the warmer hypothesis; and a bunch of peer-reviewed scientific literature indicating, and in some cases measuring, that the atmosphere is WAY less sensitive to carbon dioxide levels than the warmer alarmists claim. It's especially nice to post the list in threads where warmers are accusing anyone not buying their snake oil of being "deniers" of science -- and then watch them deny the peer-reviewed science. I loves me some irony.

And, the warmers won't like it? Meh. How about I drink an extra beer in honor of their impotent rage, and call it even?

Tyranicle: shamalamadingdong: Looks like the other side of the world has a Texas, too.

I'm a Texan and as far as I know we've never lived under communism or imprisoned citizens in gulags for disagreeing against the policies of the 'state'.

No, you've consistently had one of the worst records for political corruption in the US, with plenty of politically-oriented murders; you may have seen a film of one of the more famous of these. Look up the San Saba Co. vigilante murders, where large numbers of Texans were robbed of their land and/or murdered. The plot of Walking Tall has nothing on Texas when it comes to political criminality, a record including some of the heaviest use of chain-gang legalized post-1865 slavery, making use of forced labor largely based on spurious vagrancy charges. Thanks to LBJ, Texas gave us the Vietnam War, as well as John Tower, Dick Armey, Jack Abramoff, that roach chaser with the pointy ears I can't name now, and of course the Bushes.

Texans are scum.

Looks like your statement isn't true. Texas is middle of the road. You might want to get checked for Bush Derangement Syndrome. Actual ranking of the states for corruption, with the cleanest first:

Hey Einstein, what is wrong about doing everything we can, within reason, to limit our impact upon the Earth? Hmmm? Forget whether or not we are causing global warming or contributing to it or whatever else. Why not operate under the assumption that we are having some sort of a negative impact on the environment and then seeking to reduce that impact? Is that really such a horrible thing?

Wow. Limit our negative impact on the Earth. Did you figure that out all by yourself? You must be a wizard.

Well, you're wrong. We don't have the time, money, or energy to limit our negative impact on the Earth. We are WAY too busy freaking out over the fact that we are replenishing a vital gas into the atmosphere, a gas that had almost disappeared, which, should it disappear completely, would end all life on Earth. Plants have been evolving to deal with the very low levels of this gas. But we're going to stop it, dammit. How, you ask? By stopping its production in the developed world, and allowing its production to increase in the third world, and (of course) by sending trillions of dollars from the first world to the third world. And, although this plan will, according to those backing it, allow carbon dioxide levels to continue to increase, will solve the problem of too much plant food in the air. Well, at least if we send enough money to the third world, fast enough.